Video technology relates to electronically capturing, processing, recording, and reconstructing a sequence of still images referred to as frames, so as to represent motion. Video includes a number of frames based on a predefined frame rate. For example, in the U.S., the Advanced Television Systems Committee (“ATSC”) establishes a standard frame rate of 29.97 frames/second for video used for commercial broadcasting.
For video transmitted via a digital video signal (e.g., based on the high definition serial digital interface (HD-SDI) standard), each frame is represented by a number of pixels commonly described as the smallest unit of an image that can be represented or controlled. The number of pixels in a frame is based on a predefined resolution of the frame (typically defined by a number of columns and rows of pixels). For example, a frame having a resolution of 1920 columns and 1080 rows is referred to as 1920×1080 and is represented by the arithmetic product of approximately 2,073,600 pixels. Pixels have many attributes, including for example, chrominance values that represent color, and luma values (referred to herein as lumas) that represent brightness. Once captured and processed, video is typically encoded and recorded as a digital file. Thereafter, the file is retrieved and the video is reconstructed by decoding the file.
Recorded video is also often edited by a user. For example, a user may modify pixel attributes to alter a video's color saturation, brightness, and/or other properties. In addition, a user may edit a video's duration and/or its timeline by marking, cropping, splitting, combining, and/or rearranging select portions of the video into one or more files. Traditionally, such editing required a user to physically cut and rearrange portions of film embodying the video, but with the advent of digital files, most video editing is performed by a user interfacing with a computer software program.
While such software programs have made it easier for users to edit video, the editing process is still often difficult and time-consuming. Among other things, users often find it difficult to locate and focus on the appropriate portions of video that need to be edited.